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Super-Adin

November 17, 2010

Super Hero-ing Time!

Wearing underpants on the wrong side for justice

If you love AQWorlds, you are going to be very excited about the upcoming new SuperHero MMO game! It is being built on a "super" version of the AQWorlds game engine which allows flying, scrollable backgrounds, customizable faces and fully customizable skills (no more classes, you just buy the skills directly). The game project is being headed up by Galanoth (Currently head of the original AdventureQuest) and will feature art and animation by Thyton, and Yergen von Smergenbergen. Character design was a huge challenge. We tried going for classic comic book looking characters... but after 5 rounds we decided to throw everything away. Instead of looking like every other SuperHero game we wanted to make something truely unique. So we created mischieviously cute and ultra violent characters which have been called "Vinyl style." We really hope you like it. Just when we thought things were going smoothly we ran into a major problem... the name of the game was to be SuperHeroQuest which we registered and applied for a trademark on. However, we got a joint cease and desist letter from DC/Marvel telling us that together they OWNED THE TRADEMARK on the word SuperHero and we cannot not use it. Yes, you read that right. No one but the giant mega companies DC & Marvel are allowed to use the word SuperHero because they claim ownership of the word. You can do some research online to learn more about this. This is why you never see small indie comic makers use the word SuperHero in the titles of their comic books. I am not sure why no one ever really stood up to them before... SuperHero is a very common, generic term. We may be a small indie game company, but we are not scared to roll up our sleeves and fight. I wrote back a letter saying that I disagreed with claim on the term SuperHero and am continuing to file for the trademark on our games original name. What do you think?

In the meantime, so we release on time, we have a new working title for the game and will be releasing alpha under that top secret name..... hopefully at the end of this month! Now... we have a new rule for alpha/beta tests. For non-MMO web based games (like BladeHaven), everyone who has supported the games in the past will be invited to help Alpha/Beta test. You guys have good expectations and know that during these tests the games are not ready yet and a lot of bug hunting needs to be done! Thank you :-) For Massively Multiplayer Games there will be 3 phases. During the 1st phase we will allow everyone who has supported the games in the past to create their Character(s). This way you can get your name :-) Phase 2 will probably start later the same day... we will be locked down to a single multiplayer server that can only support a maximum of 1,500 users. We need to develop on a single server because we will be making non-stop code and content changes. Anyone who played on the AQWorlds PTR knows what that is like. Obivouly, there is not enough room for everyone, and since this is an MMO built on AQWorld's engine and resources, the most fair thing to do is limit this phase to players with active AQWorlds Memberships. Once the game is stable, we will open up multiple servers and begin Phase 3 where everyone who has supported us in the past will be invited to play. Yes, there will be something special for EVERYONE who helps test. The part of this game that I am most excited about is the open skill system. Instead of classes, you will be able to buy powers, skills and abilities directly... and combine them differently to create any type of hero you want. Leveling up will unlock new powers giving you a wider choice of things to use. Of course I am really exicted about flying too. Most hero games do now allow EVERYONE to fly if they want to (all you need to do is obtain the skill!)

Question: What is your Super Name and your Super Power? (I think mine will be "Martial Artix"... um hehe... read it out loud.)